New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-06-13
PROHIBITION IN MAINE.

Alonzo F. Abbott writes TO THE Voice q
letter which opens thus:
~ anv Pruhibitionist who has been accustomed to
look to the State Of Maine the Mecca and pefec-
ton OF prohibtoy legislation should visit that State
and examine the condition OF some Of Its principal
cities he would be painfully disappointed as was
tho great German rcformer on the occasion Of his
famous visit 30 Rome. Instead OF communities In
which tho Of intoxicating liquor with Its fright
fui effects Is unknown, no would quito as much
drunkenness tho streets and find fully as many
dramshOps he would lit other parts OF the country.
Another correspondent of ''The Voice.
writes: an some ways Maine is worse of
than any other State. What can / say when
asked to give the benefits of Constitutional
Prohibition in Maine 7" "Thc Voice itself
sounds an alarm" cries out for "enfomc-
mcnt" accuses the Republican party of being
the cause of the failure of Prohibition in the
Mecca" of prohibitory legislation, and goes
over all the familiar arguments employed to
explain away awkward but incontrovertiblc
facts. 1t will not do at this late stage in tho
Maine experiment to put the blame of failure
upon the Republican party. 1t is too well
known that the Prohibitionists have had their
own way in Maine for over thirty years. All
the time they have been alternately declaring
that Prohibition does prohibit, and laboring to
make it clear why it failed to do SO
These two lines of reasoning are of course
inconsistent and mutually destructive. Never
thcless, they have been used together, and
what is oldest. by the same people But
those who use them never show any recog.
milton Of the part played in the Prohibition
drama by public voltion; and yet there can
he no doubt that il is an important one. For
why is it that the liquor dealers find it so
easy to cirumvcnt the law = The answer
must be, not that tho law is nulliGcd by its
administrators, but that the people themselves
refuse to regard il and aid and abet the liquor
dealers in violating it. This Is what always
happens with laws not founded in public con-
vIction, and because human experience is so
uniform in this respect many true friends OF
temperance hold that no prohibtoy legislation
which docs not represent the mature con
victons Of the bulk Of the community to be
affected by it can he or ought to be applied.
II in Maine after full generation OF trial.
after the enactment Of the most stringent laws
conceivable, after giving full swing to CO.
crcion. the situation is what tho correspond
cnts Of "The Voice" declare il Is, the con
clusion is all but inevitable that the principle
concerned is accountable for the failure.
Education Is a sure means OF reform. Com
pulsion is not That seems to be the lesson OF
the. Maino experiment. and the fact that the
stricter the law is made the less efficiently it
works may be regarded as emphasizing and
enforcing this lesson Human nature is no
doubt very pcrvcrse and hard to deal with
but rcformcrs must realize this, and if they do
not they will be disappointed. The showing
made by "The Voice. concerning Maine Is
decidedly a wet blanket upon the Prohibition
theory so far as it involves compulsory absti-
ncnce